Quote:
Originally Posted by Retlaw
May I, at your convenience copy the photo of Alfred Martin for my collection of Heroes.
Retlaw
|
Spent an afternoon looking through family papers.
One photograph of Pte. Alfred Martin in uniform, and two photographs of him in the blue convalescent's uniform whilst at Redburn Hospital in 1917. One being a named group of three soldiers and two nurses, the other a large group of men and staff outside the hospital.
We have his call up papers from the reserves in 1916, when he was aged 37, and his papers when he was discharged from the R.A.S.C. MT. in 1919.
There's also letters my great grandmother wrote to fight for him to be eligible a war pension, as he was totally bed ridden after the war.
It was eventually accepted by the War Pensions Office that his disabilities were due to war service, and a pension was granted nine years later in 1928. He died four years later. My great grandmother was eventually awarded a small War Widow's Pension, after more wrangles with bureaucracy, who eventually agreed that his death was due to serving in the war.
Even though all this was way before I was born, these are my granddad's parents, and it was sad reading through all the papers relating to this time.
Even though he was one of my paternal great grandfathers, we've been sat in tears reading some of the letters. Even though my mother isn't a blood relative, as the child of a soldier killed before she was born, she knows first hand how much of a struggle it was for the widows of warfare.
I'm happy we are a family that have managed to keep so many photographs and papers together. In themselves they aren't of any great importance, but together they form a very vivid historical picture of our past, and I'm very proud of Alfred Martin, and his widow Betsy.
I'll pm you, and you are very welcome to copy the photographs and papers I've found, if they are of interest to you.